WICHITA, KS—WoodSpring Suites celebrated the opening of its first namesake property, WoodSpring Suites Oklahoma City West Airport, earlier this week with a grand opening party and a ceremonial ribbon cutting.
“This is a big day for our company,” said Bruce Haase, CEO of WoodSpring Suites. “In April of this year we made a big change when we announced the rebranding of Value Place to WoodSpring Suites. Coming off of a year of record growth, further built on our legacy of innovation, we decided to forge ahead and take the company to the next level. The decision to rebrand to WoodSpring Suites is part of our long-term growth platform and it’s incredibly exciting to see this vision come to life in our first WoodSpring Suites hotel. The company has an extraordinarily unique and strong operating model that generates some of the strongest returns in the business, but today starts a new chapter. It’s a day when we marry our successful operating model with the much stronger WoodSpring Suites brand and that is very exciting.”
“Our corporate and hotel staff now have a hotel building and a name that matches the level of product and service they are delivering,” said Kyle Rogg, president and COO. “We believe this excitement among our associates will translate into more satisfied guests who are more likely to return and recommend us to their friends and family.”
The 124-room hotel features many guest amenities such as in-room kitchens, free high-speed Internet, guest laundry, and the 99-point cleaning process that the WoodSpring Suites brand provides to every guest.
Located at 4300 W. I-40 Service Road, the new hotel is situated near a large hospitality corridor with many major businesses, including the FAA Academy, Will Rogers Airport and a large outlet shopping mall. The hotel also looks to capitalize on the frequent traveling rodeo shows that visit the local area and often result in city-wide sellouts, according to the company.
“WoodSpring Suites had record growth in 2014 and we are continuing that trend this year,” said Ron Burgett, EVP of franchise development. “We are focused on strategically expanding across the U.S. through both corporate and franchise-owned development and we’re looking forward to doing it with the WoodSpring Suites brand. Today marks the first WoodSpring Suites grand opening of many.”
In addition to new hotels, the company has announced plans to transition its existing portfolio of hotels to the WoodSpring Suites brand. “We are thrilled to continue the implementation of the new brand across the country,” said Rogg, which will happen between now and the end of the first quarter of 2016.